In recent days, somehow the weather has become more and more cold and abnormal, not like in previous years, although Zhuang Sheng doesn't think it, everyone thinks it's a strange thing. However, the revolution in the south intensified, and the capital was also in turmoil, so I didn't want to have strange things outside the city at this time, and the news spread quickly into the city. All things together have caused a storm in the city, so that everyone is in danger. Zhuang Sheng seemed to stay out of the matter, that is, he didn't care about the devastated country, and he didn't care about how turbulent the situation was, but he was depressed and depressed, and he had a feeling that he couldn't explain clearly, so he didn't slack off in the past few days, and asked Luo'er to step up the site selection and buy another house. Yun Yun suffered from a small cold after falling that day, and because the weather was colder, the cold was not good, and she was worried, so she was lazy and lazy every day, and Zhuang Sheng had to stay at home every day, either busy with the complicated affairs of the family, or laughing with her, hoping that her illness would get better soon.

After the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Empire suffered heavy losses, in order to make up for the losses, to re-establish a new type of army, Yuan Shikai gradually emerged, to February 1905, Yuan once again proposed to unify the national army number, the original standing army towns were renamed all army towns. In May, on the basis of the Beiyang Standing Army, the Beijing Banner Standing Army, the former Wuwei Right Army, and the Ziqiang Army, six Beiyang towns were built in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shandong, and most of their senior generals were Yuan Shikai's officers, so the real power of the five towns was held by Yuan Shikai. After being dismissed from office and reinstated, Yuan Shikai returned to Beijing and became the governor of Huguang, and was immediately appointed prime minister to suppress the southern revolution. In the eastern suburbs of Beijing, Yuan Shikai transferred the infantry under the command of Duan Qirui to station, and waited for the day, but strange things happened one after another these days: there were often nameless fires falling from the sky, and then causing fires, burning down the barracks, countless grains and grass, and the corpses of the soldiers who were burned by the fire disappeared inexplicably. A sub-commander named Xuchang reported to the top of the Beiyang Army Group, but Yuan Shikai mediated with the Qing government on the one hand, and negotiated with the revolutionary army on the other, and had no time to take care of it. He had no choice but to keep his grain and grass underground, withdraw half of his army to the periphery, and station the rest of his army along the riverbank.

That night, Xu Chang and the two commanders and several battalion commanders discussed countermeasures in the tent, Xuchang sat in front of the camp, the two commanders sat on both sides, the four battalion commanders sat down, and there was a pile of charcoal in the tent, but everyone still felt a little cold.

"This nameless fire fell from the sky, burning countless grains and grass, burning dozens of camp tents, and burning hundreds of people," Xu Chang said. ”

This situation is unheard of, there is no way to follow, everyone looks at each other, unable to say a word, and according to investigation, such a thing has never happened in the city, and the counties and villages outside the city also have such a thing, which makes people puzzled, and the atmosphere has been frozen for a long time. Liu Tongdai thought that many days ago the evil fire surrounded the moon, making the moonlight red, and setting off waves of heat waves, which was also a strange news in the world, perhaps related to this matter, so he speculated: "The 'fire siege' that circulated in the city a few days ago will be related to this matter?" ”

"We haven't seen it with our own eyes, maybe it's a rumor, and now this is really happening in our barracks, the two are not the same, let's focus on the current situation." Xu Chang said, "It is very likely that this incident is caused by the rebels who infiltrated our military camp to disturb the morale of the army, and now the focus is on how to reduce casualties, how to recover the bodies of burned sergeants, and how to find out the culprit is the purpose of my call!" ”

"Fire is afraid of water, and only by attacking it with water can it work." "The best way is to arrange water defenses. ”

"Of course, that's right, so we're stationed on the banks of the river, and we can intercept the river and make it form a body of water."

"It's a passive defense, and we should do a good job of it, and the most important thing is to find the arsonist." Xu Chang said.

"The commander doesn't know, this fire evil is abnormal, it seems to fall from the sky, it is not like ordinary people can make it, even if it is a person, I don't think he will be an ordinary person, he must be proficient in witchcraft, and then manipulate the evil fire to attack my military camp."

Xu Chang glanced at him and did not answer.

"It is better to believe in what it is, not to believe in it, there are countless strange things in ancient times, and it is not strange that we encounter one or two things, people are often defeated in not believing in their evil, and it is better to be prepared, and it is not a bad thing to have a preparation."

"Recently, there have been a lot of strange things in Beijing, and I don't think Kuang Tong's words are completely unbelievable."

"People in the military should not talk about evil demons, but since Kuang Tongdao talks about it like this, it is inevitable that it will not lead people to reverie."

"I don't know what's wrong, this year's weather is unusually cold, although it's already November, the weather is starting to get cooler, but it's too cold, the soldiers are not enough to wear two more than in previous years, only on clothes, military spending is three times more than in previous years, don't you think it's too strange?"

Everyone, you say a word to me, Xu Chang just listened, he didn't believe in evil originally, but now he has goosebumps all over his body.

"Yes, there are many rumors among the people, saying..."Battalion Commander Lu stopped abruptly and turned to look at Xu Chang and the two commanders above.

Everyone also looked at him intently, full of anticipation for his next words.

"What did you say?" Xu Chang asked.

"This ......"

"Say, this is a military camp, not a court."

Xu Chang knew what he wanted to say, but let him continue.

"It is said that the Great Qing Qi is about to run out, and that day the evil fire overwhelmed the city, and there was a rebellion in the south, which is the will of heaven, so the evil fire fell from the sky to show punishment——"

"That's not what you and I should care about," Xu Chang stared at the fire in the brazier in the tent getting smaller and smaller, he shivered coldly, he had a deep understanding of the weather becoming abnormally cold,

"Kuang Tongdai, since you have quite an insight into the demon and evil Gu technique, then you should look everywhere and ask to see if there are any capable people who can extinguish this evil fire."

"I-"

"Needless to say, this matter is indeed strange, there must be something strange in it, you know a lot about this matter, so I will leave it to you." Xu Chang then said to the others. "Others are actively preparing and arranging water defenses! It's too cold, so I'm going to rest early today and we'll talk about it tomorrow morning. ”

Several people left the tent in turn, trembling even more, and the sky at this time drifted with a fine freezing rain.

In the past five days, Xuchang led the soldiers to actively arrange water defense, but the strange things never stopped.

First, the infantry battalion led by Xu Chang was attacked, and after several times, Xuchang divided the army into two teams, respectively ordered them to be stationed by the river, and drained the water so that the camps that were not distributed on the river bank could also quickly get water, and at night they sent more manpower to expand the patrol range, and once they found abnormalities, they took the sound of drums as a signal.

One day after that, a batch of new grain and grass caught fire inexplicably, and the cold wind blew the fire all over the camp, but fortunately, the water was properly prevented, and the evil fire was quickly extinguished, and no large-scale fire was caused, and no casualties were missing. But a few days later, several fires broke out in the neighboring town within a few days, and the flames were so fierce that hundreds of houses were burned in one day and one night.

At this time, most of the troops were sent to the southern battlefield, and as for the city of Beiping, due to the unpredictable situation, the soldiers did not dare to move. Only the infantry battalion led by Xuchang is stationed outside the city, which is currently the closest and most independent army, so Xuchang ordered the deputy commander Liu Yuan to bring 1,000 troops to support, and the detachment of more than 1,000 people guarded the border line, patrolled and stood guard, and arranged water defense.

One night, after a few days, the moonlight was shining, and the drums in the southwest suddenly shook the sky. The whole town was boiling, everyone rushed to the streets to watch in fear, more than a thousand soldiers gathered on the border, and someone came on horseback to the southwest—the patrolman.

"Fire, fire is coming—" he fell from his horse.

Liu Yuan led his troops forward, and when the mighty team marched to the river in front, he could see a little fire from the darkness in the distance. The sky over there had been dyed red, and as the flames approached, the forests in that area burned into flames, and the flames grew thicker, illuminating half of the sky, and the flames quickly spread to the town, and once they entered the town, hundreds of houses would be reduced to ashes!

But the human body could not resist this fire, and Liu Yuan ordered all the soldiers patrolling in front to retreat and wait for the battle.